Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Wall E Thoughts

I got to see Wall E over the weekend. Spectacular. Especially the first half hour--the folks at Pixar really created a spectacular visual setting and essentially taught a clinic on the use of visuals and sound to tell a story without dialogue.

Still, it seems fashionable to say that WALL*E should be nominated for Best Picture beyond Best Animated picture. I think that is just plain silly. I thoroughly enjoyed the film as much as any animated film that I have seen in a decade, but Best Picture? Come on! Not for a film that is brilliant only 1/3 of the time. The scenes with the 'human' characters and most of the scenes with the secondary robots were silly and not nearly as powerful as the scenes on earth and the EVE/WALL*E interactions like their space dance. Though I do admit, WALL*E is the best movie that I have seen in 2008, this has been a relatively poor year thus far. That's no reason to think that there aren't 5 better films coming around the corner--films from names like Pitt, Clooney, Pacino, De Niro, Mortensen, Zellwegger, Fincher, Blanchett, Swinton, Hoffman, DiCaprio, and Winslet will be in theaters this fall. Do you think that Wall*E will stand up to those offerings when it comes to Best Picture nominations? Mark it down as a shoo-in winner for best animated feature, but it will not and should not get a BP nomination unless many many stars align and all of these top talents fall flat.

3 comments:

i agree with you that better films might be coming down the pike this year. but they haven't come yet. and those films can always disappoint. so why rule out wall-E as a best picture contender? it's a long shot, sure. but if this weak year continues, i could definitely see it deserving a nomination.

It is a great film. Forget about what might be coming. The first 20 minutes plus the fire extinguisher scene are brilliant, but the rest is just another animated kids movie. I haven't seen these films yet, but it seems to me that the critical acclaim of films like The Visitor and Son of Rambow make them better shots. Ultimately, I guess that I believe that animated films SHOULD be treated separately. Just because they appear on the same screen, it really is a different art form. How can a film with almost no human performances (5 minutes of voice work aside in WALL-E) be up for best picture? Best Director, certainly. Best Screenplay, of course!

and i disagree that everything but the beginning and the fire extinguisher scene is "just another animated kids movie". it had some pretty biting criticisms of american culture in the second half of the film. that stuff would go right over the head of any kid.